‘BILLIE JEAN’ will be the new Michael Jackson single, next month — no comment! . . . Sharon Redd’s current ‘Can You Handle It (Remix)‘ actually turns out be a UK concocted sequence of bits from three different earlier mixes . . . I’m once again putting together the 4 hour ‘Ain’t Nothing But A House Party’ tape which Capital Radio broadcasts between 10pm-2am over the turn of the New Year on the 31st, which’ll give you some idea of how I handle my mobile gigs if you can catch it — I understand cassettes of last year’s were a hot property! . . . Tony de Vit is presenting a special 4 hour Beacon Radio show on the evening of Monday 3rd January, recalling the best dance music of ’82 with plenty of mixes . . . Ian Levine & Colin Curtis reunite again in their old jocking partnership for a star-studded Manchester alldayer on May Day bank holiday Monday, when even some unexpected vintage US soulsters could be appearing too if all goes to plan . . . Capital’s dub plate reggaemeister David Rodigan recently surprised me by confessing that these days at his gigs he has to play sixty percent funky soul music, rather than pure reggae as that’s what his crowd want now . . . murderation! . . . Nick Ratcliffe has joined ace mixer John Dene on Tuesdays at Guildford Cinderella Rockerfellas easing funk-wards in the New Year, plus on Wednesdays in January he’ll be joining Dave Maskell there too . . . Phil Black (0222 595891) is now DJ and promotion manager at Cardiff’s new Chaplins, where he’d welcome doing some promotion nights . . . Cleveland Area DJ Association have a late night Christmas party on Monday 10th January at the Oak Leaf Club in Middlesbrough’s South Bank, with £2.50 tickets from Graham Murray on 0642 325112/470046 . . . Banbury’s Hospital Radio Horton have all sorts of high jinks planned over Christmas including a disco — for the patients? . . . Tony St Michael (01 609 3851 — ask for Peter) would like some gigs in the Oakham area of Rutland . . . Pete Alex at Oxford’s Boodles has arranged free entry to the club for any kosher DJ Association members Tues/Wed/Thursdays, and, while the venue is available to equipment-type companies for exhibitions, Pete is also thinking of staging an Oxford ‘Disco Fair’ — interested parties can reach him at Boodles, 35 Westgate, Oxford . . . Trevor John Hughes, out of action recently through illness (better than lead poisoning, huh?), recommends the good deals available to DJs at Wednesfield’s Max Millward Records and Wolverhampton’s Ruby Red Records . . . John Sinclair funks Reading Rebeccas on Thurs/Saturdays, having to incorporate the ‘Ain’t No Stoppin’ Us Now’ style of oldies to keep everyone (including the manager) happy . . . Rob Harknett still hits Ongar’s Haunt once a month, his longest running gig, since 1969 — and he now finds himself playing to the kids of those original 1969 members (shades of ‘Mr Chips’!) . . . Trademark ‘Uh-Huh!‘ (US Move ‘N Groove 12in), yet to do much here, turns out to be a new adaptation of the Invisible Man’s Band ‘All Night Thing‘ from 1980 . . . Chester Browton (Selsey) is trying to place two records he heard in Spain: ‘Rock Your Baby’ is obviously either Disco Connection (PRT) or the slightly slower Julius Green (German Ariola), but his guess at the title line of ‘Oh Baby Don’t You Love The Night’ has got me foxed over the other . . . Nick Davies (Watford New Penny) says Malcolm McLaren’s ‘Traditional Square Dance’ version goes great after ‘John Wayne Is Big Leggy’ . . . Wednesday 5th January is the next deadline for DJ’s charts ‘n’ info, and we’d really appreciate your effort (next week it’s Hammy Award time) . . . many thanks for all your cards — one that came from Spandau Ballet made the guys look such hunks I thought it must’ve been from Bolts! — and the very generous “drinks” . . . HEAVY HEAVY XMAS VIBES!

UK NEWIES

REVIEWS Uh-oh, blown it again! I hope you can appreciate that during the less than 24 hours since finishing last week’s copy I have had to completely recompile not only everything in this issue but also everything in next week’s year-end round up too, including a 1982 Top 100 and the Hammy Awards which relate closely to the former’s contents. There has not been time for anything more than some overdue unprinted import reviews, and all the relevant BPMs that fit. Apart from keeling over for a while from exhaustion I haven’t slept in over 48 hours. Isn’t Christmas a gas? See you in ’83.

IMPORTS

INDEEP: ‘Last Night A DJ Saved My Life’ (US Sound Of New York SNY 51 5102).
Potentially a pop crossover smash, this fantastically compulsive simple 110bpm 12in chugger features a slinky lady setting up the story situation, ringing phone effects, squealing brakes, flushing loo, and a rapping DJ saying how he “can do it in the mix” (great into Malcolm McLaren or Feel). Multi-banded with various dub versions, the flip even has the sound effects usefully on their own.

GROVER WASHINGTON JR: ‘Can You Dig It’ (LP ‘The Best Is Yet To Come’ US Elektra 60215).
Not out here until January and already cooling off on import, the most obvious dancer of a consistently pleasant set is this sinuous tootling unhurried 110-111-112bpm weaver with a Deodato-ish undertow, ‘More Than Meets The Eye‘ being a very pretty slow 86bpm Latin jogger, ‘Mixty Motions‘ a fast 134bpm racer, ‘Brazilian Memories‘ a languid 52/104-104½bpm drifter, ‘Things Are Getting Better‘ a Bobby McFerrin sung specialist 91½bpm floater.

THE ABOVE are the lead reviews, while (for full review soon) the killers now are:

Related

Many thanks for posting another year of Hammy. What a year 1982 was for music. It was one of my favourites but readings these columns make you realise just how much good music there was. In fact there may have been too much with good records being overlooked. Looking forward to 1983, the year of Michael Jackson and Thriller. Wonder if Hammy will change his mind on Billie Jean?

Very strong week for new releases – Indeep, Mahogany ‘Ride On The Rhythm’, Cashmere ‘Do It Any Way You Wanna’ ,Jonzun Crew ‘Space Is the Place’ and Man Parrish ‘Hip Hop Be Bop’ – all destined to become classics

incidentally that is the first mention of the term ‘hip hop’ in the column and probably one of the first in print in Britain.

Yes indeed – hot on the heels of scratching making its debut, hip hop just sneaks under the wire at the end of 1982. I don’t think many people would categorise Man Parrish as a hip hop artist these days, but we’re still a few years away from hip hop emerging as a distinct category from electro.